Part 1 of Wicked has finally been released, and the public is loving it. From going viral on TikTok to being featured on every late-night talk show, this is truly the era of Wicked.
Jon M. Chu did what was considered impossible: He created a movie musical that was both a faithful adaption of the original source material AND a box office hit!
However, not all directors have been as lucky as Chu in trying to bring the stage to the screen. Here are 10 musicals that have terrible movie adaptions.
Related: Top 10 Historical Musicals That Aren’t “Hamilton”
10 Rock of Ages
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It’s never good when a newspaper’s review of your movie starts with, “I just lost two hours of my life, and I want them back.” Unfortunately, that was the general consensus with 2012’s Rock of Ages.
Though much of the original plot and songs were kept in, the campiness and silliness of the show simply didn’t translate to the big screen. Even a truly stacked cast, including Tom Cruise, Bryan Cranston, Catherine Zeta-Jones, and Alec Baldwin, couldn’t save this jukebox musical from being ripped apart by critics. The movie lacks lust, juice, heat, bad behavior, and other things we’ve come to associate with rock bands like the ones featured in the show.
As the New York Times put it, “There isn’t any grit to these people or their art, not a speck of dirt anywhere. It looks like Disneyland and sounds, well, like a bad Broadway musical.”[1]
9 The King and I
Not to be confused with the beloved 1956 movie The King and I, this 1999 cartoon aimed to be a more kid-friendly version of the story of a British teacher and her romance with the King of Siam.
Unlike many movies aimed at children, this one was not enjoyable for adults as well. Critics panned the way the film simplified the plot, cut Rogers and Hammersteins’ songs, and essentially created a water-down version of the (already pretty family-friendly) story.
Upon its release, the Washington Post wrote that it was a “wretched, lurid, absurd concoction which seems to have been conceived to annoy adults and bore children.”[2]
8 Nine
Based on the Italian movie 8 ½, Nine the musical follows a womanizing Italian film director (played by Daniel Day-Lewis) as he goes through a midlife crisis. Nine important women in his life seem to speak to him as voices in his head. From his mother to his mistress to the prostitute he slept with as a child, Day-Lewis has conversations with each one that lead him to realize that he should have appreciated and acknowledged the women in his life before it was too late.
At its core, the show is about the importance of seeing women as more than just sex objects or people to be conquered, as their perspectives and realities can lead to new outlooks on life. While the performances in the 2009 film adaptation were generally praised, director Rob Marshall was criticized for his tendency to cast the female characters in scantily clad outfits and catering to the male gaze rather than taking the moral of the show to heart.[3]
7 Les Miserables
To be fair, it’s difficult to adapt a 1,400-page book into a three-hour musical. And it’s even more difficult to take a three-hour musical about French history and actually have it be interesting.
But Les Miserables was a hit when it opened on the West End in 1980, despite the myriad of plots and characters. The mix of romance and hatred, grief and love, made the musical beloved by millions.
Surprisingly, not much was changed for the 2012 movie, which starred Anne Hathaway and Hugh Jackman. So why is it seen as an example of what not to do when making a movie musical? Director Tom Hooper made a bold choice to cast Russell Crowe opposite a slew of seasoned Broadway and West End singers, and unfortunately, the movie star couldn’t live up to them. His vocals were described as grating, and his mediocre singing voice took away from the melodrama and fear his role required. When asked about this decision, Hooper frankly claimed, “To find brilliant film actors who are brilliant singers… there are so few choices.”[4]
6 Phantom of the Opera
Even ignoring the fact that romantic lead Emmy Rossum was only 17 years old, playing opposite a 33-year-old Gerard Butler, the Phantom of the Opera movie was a flop.
Watching the chandelier fall from the ceiling and the phantom’s gondola glide through the fog of a stage doesn’t quite hit the same when it’s on a screen. The inherent theatricality of the musical did not lend itself to the 2004 movie, and the more problematic plot points of the original were only highlighted by the young age of its lead. Not to mention, poor Gerard Butler certainly looked the part of the mysterious phantom but couldn’t quite hit the right notes.
Ultimately, the spectacle and music saved this from being a complete failure, but most reviewers agreed that the movie was “histrionic, boring, and lacking in romance and danger.”[5]
5 Dear Evan Hansen
Even before the 2021 movie version of Dear Evan Hansen was released, there was controversy regarding the plot of the original Broadway show.
Teenager Evan Hansen is lying about being friends with a classmate who committed suicide in order to make friends and become closer with the classmate’s sister, who he has a crush on. If this makes you kind of hate Evan, you’re not alone. The show tries to paint Evan in a sympathetic light, highlighting his intense self-hatred and mental illness, but many still find the show to be letting him off the hook too easily.
To remedy this, the movie tried to make it clear that Evan didn’t want to keep lying but felt he had to continue due to outside pressures. Rather than making Evan more easy to pity, though, it made him seem weak and uninteresting. He continues the lie for no discernable reason, and all is forgiven in the end.
Ben Platt originated the role of Evan Hansen on Broadway at the age of 22. By the time the movie was being made in 2021, Platt was 27 and could no longer pass for a high school junior. Because the film was produced by Platt’s father, he, of course, landed the role. No amount of makeup or “youthful” haircuts could make this man seem younger, leading to an uncanny valley leading man and less than stellar reviews.[6]
4 Hair
Hair took the world by storm when it debuted Off-Broadway in 1967. The same cannot be said for the movie adaptation. Though it didn’t exactly flop, even going on to be nominated for a Golden Globe, it doesn’t quite live up to the musical version: At least, not according to its fans.
The musical was written during the hippie movement, while the film was made in 1979 after it had ended. It makes sense that these two different pieces of media have different outlooks on the hippie tribe, which is the central focus of the story. The musical explores racism, pacifism, war, sex, drugs, and religion. The movie is more focused on the hippies as people, not so much on their beliefs and morals.
The biggest diversion from the original plot comes at the end. In the stage version, the main character, Claude, a member of the hippie tribe, receives his draft card and is killed in Vietnam. In the movie, Claude’s friend Berger switches places with Claude to give his friend one last night of freedom. The soldiers are deployed that night, and Berger is killed in Vietnam while posing as Claude. Both endings are sad, but the original captures the simple hopelessness of the Vietnam Era and the simple sacrifices people made during it.[7]
3 A Chorus Line
As the seventh-longest-running musical in Broadway history, A Chorus Line holds a special place in the hearts of many theater fans. When it debuted in 1975, audiences were taken with each of the seventeen characters, all actors auditioning for spots on, you guessed it, a chorus line.
Rather than focus on plot or development, each character gets a few moments to explain who they are, why they’re there, and why they love to dance. The experimental nature of the show was revolutionary for the time and led to numerous accolades.
After having difficulty getting off the ground due to hesitancy from directors, in 1985, a movie adaption of A Chorus Line was released and met with universally terrible reviews. Many felt that the focus on a romance between one of the chorus line girls and the director, which is included in the original show but made the main plot in the adaption, completely went against the moral of the story.
In a show that’s meant to be about everyone, Hollywood tried to make it about romance, and this fundamental misunderstanding of the source material unfortunately meant the magic of the show could not be replicated.[8]
2 Into the Woods
Into the woods and out of the movie theater.
In 2014, Disney released a movie adaption of Stephen Sondheim’s 1985 musical Into the Woods starring Meryl Streep, Anna Kendrick, Emily Blunt, Chris Pine, and more A-list celebs. With a cast like that, it seemed like a surefire hit. And while it did end up doing well at the box office, Broadway fans were not impressed.
In the stage version of the show, the interwoven stories seamlessly flow in and out of each other as characters make their way deeper into the woods. The movie was unable to replicate this, leaving the plot muddled and beloved songs such as “Ever After” and “No More” on the cutting room floor.
Though the cut songs and slowed tempos were annoying, what truly diverted the film was the absence of the narrator. The show starts with him telling the audience “Once upon a time” and guiding us through the stories, which helped keep the plots separate and added an extra storybook-like quality.
One of the most pivotal moments of the show is when the characters suddenly break the fourth wall and decide to sacrifice the narrator despite his protests. This marks the point when the show begins to get darker, as Prince Charming cheats on Cinderella and Little Red Riding Hood’s grandmother is brutally killed. Without the narrator, there’s no clear reason for things to go downhill so quickly, leading to a more ambiguous and less impactful moral.[9]
1 Cats
Ask anyone who’s seen Cats (either the musical or the movie) about what the show’s plot is, and there’s a good chance they won’t be able to tell you anything. Except, of course, that there are cats in it.
The Broadway show was a smash hit in the ’80s and is still the fifth longest-running show in Broadway history. It’s mostly a story of individual cats explaining to the audience who they are and how their world works, with a second plot revolving around which cat deserves to be reborn in their version of the afterlife.
Part of the reason the stage show was so successful despite its oddities was the immersive experience and impressive dancing, both of which did not translate to the screen. Instead of wild makeup and ’80 bodysuits, audiences watched CGI James Corden and Taylor Swift roll around a set for two and a half hours.
Five years after its release, it is widely hailed as being one of the worst movies of all time. As Rotten Tomatoes so eloquently put it, “Despite its fur-midable cast, this Cats adaptation is a clawful mistake that will leave most viewers begging to be put out of their mew-sery.”[10]